Treatments #10,11,12
A new week after the 'rest' of the weekend. The days seem to be blending into one another now, without significant non-RT activity. My mouth and tongue are getting sorer and more uncomfortable, eating is less pleasurable, and swallowing progressively more uncomfortable.
I am now using the mouthwash 4-6 times a day.It is called Caphosol, and upon reading older posts turns out to be a most coveted substance, not automatically dispensed by all regional health authorities due to its high cost.
The oral anaesthetic is called Oxetacaine, and upon reading its instructions also turns out to be an antacid and excellent haemorrhoid relief. So, my wife jokes, it makes no difference to which end I apply it. On Sunday night this gloop was a godsend, the burning pain in my mouth making it necessary to medicate approx every two hours. It does numb, but leaves a weird, vaguely aniseed aftertaste, even though it is predominantly minty. Things seem to have calmed a bit now (Thursday) and I am doing less of the gloop and painkillers.
Yesterday I had a clinic appointment with another new face. She brought my attention to one of the teeth the maxillo-facial chose to let me keep. It seems to have darkened in colour, and I'm wondering if this may be something to do with the RT? Will keep tabs on it and get further information...
I have now been upgraded to soluble paracetamol, and Oromorph, which I will be collecting today.
I also saw the speech and language lady who gave me some exercises to do in anticipation of reduced mouth movement and swallowing.
Anyway. Food. Monday I was feeling a bit sorry for myself, so had tinned spaghetti bolognaise and soggy toast for lunch, managed to eat a couple of quarter pounder cheeseburgers for tea, but it was tough going, especially fishing bits of tomato skin out of my gums.
Tuesday I was feeling a bit more confident, so had heavily buttered toast for breakfast, two turkey salad barms and a pork pie for lunch, and a pie with mash and lots of gravy for tea. I am now reluctantly conceding that I can taste very little of the food I am eating, and the variety is purely for the different textures. Again, slightly painful to chew and swallow, and taking me much longer to clear my plate.
Wednesday I skipped breakfast, had soup and a soft roll for lunch, with a ginger sponge cake and custard for afters. I could taste the custard, so that was nice. For tea I supercharged a peppered grillsteak with some more pepper, and had this with fried egg and chips. Disappointingly, I could taste the egg and chips a bit, but of the pepper, I got a little bit of heat, but no flavour. Weird, this taste bud stuff.
I tried also a strawberry yoghurt drink which had some flavour, so encouraged by this I had a couple of glasses of strawberry milkshake yesterday evening which I could taste and was also moderately soothing on my mouth.
Throughout this eating journal, the one constant has been lukewarm sweet milky tea, which still tastes good and does not discomfort my tongue like water sometimes does.
The upshot of this 'diet' is that I managed to maintain my weight from one week to the next, although I joke that I can well afford to shift a couple of stones. What the next week will bring is probably predictable, in that I will be eating more soft food, and will most likely drop a bit of weight, although on current form, if I have egg and chips every day, I'll be just fine 
.
I managed to finally clear out the contents of the soon to be ex-garage, and am formulating a plan for its replacement. In anticipation of this, I indulged in a little retail therapy, and my new sliding mitre saw will arrive tomorrow, courtesy of amazon. I do hope my wife is not reading this blog, since she thinks I have way too many tools, and I was hoping to just sneak this new toy into my workshop shed unnoticed. 'That old thing? I've had that for ages'. She has been doing this with clothes for years, so I had a good teacher.
Anyway, here's to egg'n'chips and milkshake, it's going to be a 3 day weekend with no RT due to the bank holiday. No plans, but we'll see where the wind blows us.
